You’ve had a dream of starting your own business for years, and you’re finally making it happen. You’ve got your idea, business name, and location (if your business needs one). Now you’re ready to begin attracting customers or clients but not sure where to begin. 

If you have opened your own business or someday plan to, you’ll need to brand yourself, but the concept of branding can be so overwhelming it’s hard to know where to start. This week’s post will simplify to two steps to help you get started amplifying your brand and growing your business.

Before we dive into these steps, let’s define branding and why it matters. 

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association, 2022).

When you’re a solopreneur, i.e., hairdresser, photographer, organization specialist, etc., you are an extension of your brand and therefore need to brand yourself. Doing so will help you hone your message to your audience and help keep you from chasing customers that don’t make sense for your business (for example, a hairdresser marketing to a bald man). 

 

Julie Andrews said it best when she sang, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start,” as Maria Von Trapp in Sound of Music (Rogers & Hammerstein).

Grab a pencil and some paper, put on your thinking cap, and begin to brainstorm who exactly you want to buy your product or service. You can do a barebones outline as shown below to get started before expanding and detailing your ideal market.

Step one: Create a Barebones Idea of Your Business and Target Market.

Start by creating a barebones outline of the following prompts:

• Business Concept: (what product or service am I selling?)
• Buyer persona: (who is most likely to be interested in purchasing my product or service) 
• Unique Value Proposition: (what I alone can bring to the table)

Step two: Expand and further define your business, your audience, and your UVP 

This step will help you hone and build upon a foundation that you started in the first step. This step will help you move from generic: “I am a home organizer” to specific: “I am a busy momma who educates other busy mommas on how getting their home neatly organized helps them to spend more time with their babies.” 

As your business grows, you can continuously refine your branding, but the steps listed above can help get you started. 

If you would like more guidance on building your target persona or your personal brand, please email mthornt2@stedwards.edu for a free Zoom session to brainstorm ideas. 

 

References

American Marketing Association. (2022, January 24). Definitions of Marketing. Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.ama.org/the-definition-of-marketing-what-is-marketing/

Hammerstein, O., Rogers, R. (1965). Do-Re-MI [Recorded by Julie Andrews, Nicholas Hammond, Debbie Turner, Duane Chase, Heather Menzies, Angela Cartwright, Kym Karath & Charmian Carr (Sound of Music Cast)]. On The Sound of Music [Vinyl]. RCA Victor.

Photos and videos courtesy of:

https://storyset.com/business”>Business illustrations by Storyset

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